The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)

November 12, 2014 5:56 PM

What is taking Deborah Logan? Some memories are worth forgetting. From Wikipedia: The Taking of Deborah Logan is a 2014 independent American horror film and the feature film directorial debut of Adam Robitel. The film stars Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, and Michelle Ang. It is set in the fictional town of Exuma, Virginia, and tells the story of a documentary crew making a film about Alzheimer's patients who uncover something sinister while documenting a woman who suffers from the disease

The movie is a pretty typical found-footage horror documentary, but sustained by solid acting and a smart premise. I'd recommend not watching the trailer (or even reading about it) and diving right in. It starts a little slow but builds up to something that is genuinely terrifying and heartbreaking.

Links:
Red Band Trailer
IMDB
Netflix Instant - Stream it for free on Netflix

posted by kyp (4 comments total)

Backstory: My roommates and I were trying to find a decent horror movie for Halloween, which usually does not go well as there are too many trailers to fight over in this day and age (and to be fair most horror fare is pretty middling). This was the first movie that popped up on Netflix and everyone who's watched it has given it a thumbs up.

The movie starts a bit slow but the build-up is oh so worth it. Watching it a second time is even better, because some of the early scenes make sense in retrospect. Plus, Alzheimer's is affecting enough on its own, and lends a genuine level of horror to the proceedings.
posted by kyp at 6:02 PM on November 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

This was pretty standard horror fare, although I do give it points for having two of the three main roles being played by women older than 30.

Also why did you name your fictional town Exuma (pronounced nearly the same as eczema)? The girlfriend and I had to notice how terrible that name is every time they mention it. I looked it up assuming it was a real town, but nope, that was a purposefully chosen name.
posted by john-a-dreams at 7:27 PM on November 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

Oh my God, this was awful. Even by the standards of typical found-footage schlock, this was exceptionally dumb. Aaaargh. I will write more at length later about this movie if my vitals can take it.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 5:38 PM on November 18, 2014

Loved it! I've got to give this one major props for being a smart, female-driven horror film. One of the protagonists is a lesbian, there's a portrayal of a successful single mom, a female Ph.D. candidate, a female sheriff, and a female physician. So many women -- yes, over age 30 even -- who are actively running the show in this town. The casting choices felt quite progressive, and the setting is a small town in the US South of all places.

I also appreciated the racial diversity, too: rounding out the cast are an Asian female lead, a female doctor of color, and an African-American cameraman. Just a decade ago, these parts all would have been played by white men, with perhaps a token nerdy/hot white woman and a token sexpot white woman thrown in-- and then one of the dudes getting to have sex with her. Blech.

The ending got me good. Very clever, and creepy as all get-out. Did not see that one coming!

I was not a super fan of the Evil Native American Ritual trope; that pretty much always has racist overtones, and has been done to death (no pun intended).

In short, this movie took something really fucking scary in our everyday lives in society (Alzheimer's/our fear of becoming old and incapacitated/health care inaffordability) and ran wild with it. For my money, it was a pretty cool new addition to the genre, and IMHO there's more to this one than first meets the eye. See it.
posted by hush at 3:48 PM on February 1, 2015 [1 favorite]